Lighting up the hills
Even if Jack Frost doesn’t visit Alabama this year, snowflakes will still fall along U.S. 31 in Vestavia. The best part? These snowflakes won’t melt, and there’s a good chance Rudolph will light their way with his glowing red nose, along with a choir of angels.
A Treasured Tradition
While the chance of a white Christmas in Alabama may be slim, the odds that holiday decorations will adorn Vestavia Hills is certain.
The city has been making its patch of Birmingham festive for about 32 years by lining portions of U.S. 31, Columbiana Road, Rocky Ridge Road and Cahaba Heights with life-size ornaments. Mike Swann, who works for the city’s public works department, has helped get the 6-foot-tall ornaments on light posts around the city for almost 25 years.
“When I first started here, I was the one who was actually putting them up,” Swann said, who now oversees the annual tradition.
Every year, Swann said the city mounts snowflakes, reindeer, stockings, Christmas trees and angels on city streetlights so drivers can admire the decorations. Once the sun goes down and the street lamps switch on, the ornaments come to life in shades of white, amber and green, he said.
Until the decorations make their holiday debut, however, Swann said they rest within the city’s public works department off U.S. 31, waiting for their moment to shine. He guessed there are about 300 ornaments.
The process of getting the ornaments mounted and ready for the season can be a tiresome feat, Swann said.
“We usually start a few weeks before Thanksgiving and try to have it all done by Thanksgiving; that way they can all get turned on,” he said. “We get them ready here at our shop, make sure all the bulbs are ready, and we put them in order on the truck.”
One of the biggest barriers in getting the ornaments ready to go is making sure each bulb on each ornament is working, Swann said. He guessed in all, there are more than 21,000 bulbs.
“And there are probably more than that,” he said while surveying the decorations, neatly stacked in rows in an open shed within the city’s public works department.
Almost every year, Swann said the city has to go back and replace bulbs — making sure Vestavia gets its optimum share of holiday glow.
“There was one year when the mayor at the time rode along the highway and saw that there were bulbs that were out, so we had to go back out and fix them,” Swann said with a reminiscent smile. “It was cold outside that night with rain, and we were out there having to change bulbs.”
Usually, Swann said, a crew of three from the city is responsible for making sure all the ornaments go up and are plugged in. Weighing in at about 15 pounds each (Swann noted the angel is the heaviest one of all), the decorations can take their toll on the employees-turned-temporary-elves who put them on display.
If bulbs need to be replaced, or if decorations begin showing their age, Swann said the city turns to Dixie Decorations in Montevallo to replenish their stock.
“They do decorations for all the municipalities,” he said. “That’s the go-to place for decorations.”
Former Vestavia Hills Mayor Butch Zaragoza said the decorations have become a beloved holiday tradition in the city. He also noted that the decorations used to accompany an annual holiday parade down U.S. 31 — but due to increased traffic, that tradition has since been retired.
Zaragoza said the ornaments, however, will likely stick around for a long time.
“I know some of our decorations have a little age to them, and we’ve been in discussions to update those decorations,” he said. “But I think once they’re all up and the lights are burning, it just looks beautiful going up Highway 31. We definitely have the holiday spirit in Vestavia Hills.”
Gearing up for the holidays
As the public works department prepares to light up Vestavia with holiday cheer, Swann said he envisions the tradition will go off smoothly — after all, he has more than two decades of experience with it.
“I’ve been doing this for a while,” he said.
And even though the longtime city employee doesn’t actually live in Vestavia (he lives in Helena), he said he’s looking forward to sharing the tradition with his family, and maybe taking them on a drive down U.S. 31 to see the decorations.